I try to place her, but nothing comes to mind. “Yeah, you’re on the wrong side of campus,” I tell her. I point in the direction she needs to go in. “Head that way. The building will be on your right.”
She nods. “Wow, I really went off track.” She laughs and raises her gloved hand to her face. She rubs her nose, but for a split second it looks like she’s getting ready for a punch.
Oh.
Now I know where I’ve seen her.
She was River’s opponent at the street fight.
If I’d been dressed for it, I’d have gotten into the cage with her to see for myself whether River was bullshitting about being tired or if she’s simply that good. Blaze thinks street fights are stupid, but they can also earn money, and that’s tempted me more than once.
Regardless of what everyone thinks, I don’t automatically do whatever Blaze tells me to. On the other hand, if I got hurt, I wouldn’t be able to protect him.
He might say he can take care of himself—and he can—but with everything going on, it doesn’t seem like the right time to test that theory.
But maybe River has the right idea of it, and I can earn enough to augment what I send to my mom. As it is, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to send her anything at all, and no matter how many times she tries to tell me that she’ll befine, we all know thatfinemeans anything but.
“You were at the fights the other night,” I note. “When are you going back? I wouldn’t mind seeing how I measure up against you, after you kicked River’s ass.”
The woman startles. “Oh, you were watching?” She gives me anassessing once-over, and shakes her head. “No offense, but I don’t like uneven matches. You’ll need to find somebody down on your own level.”
I blink at her, shocked by her assessment. “Excuse me?” I ask, incredulous. “I’ve been doing MMA since I was a kid.”
I’m at least as good as River is. I’d helped take down one of the goons at the hotel those women had been held at, and I’ve earned my way through the ranks of my MMA classes.
“Sure. If you say so.” She laughs as she pulls her satchel closer. “Anyway, I need to get to the bio lab. Nice talking to you…?”
I glare at her. “Yeah. It’s been great,” I say, ignoring the grasp for my name or whatever she’s trying to pull. “See you.”
I stalk off like an angry cat. I’m not a shitty fighter. Just because I don’t fight in street fights or whatever doesn’t mean I can’t handle myself.
I’m still fuming by the time I get back to the house, and it has me in a shitty mood as I seek out Blaze, who’s in the kitchen cooking.
He takes one look at me and quirks a brow. “What crawled up your ass?”
I grit my teeth. “Nothing.”
“Uh huh.” Blaze flips his eggs over. “Do you want some eggs too? Pandora gave me this spicy dressing that’s actually really delicious. And not destroy-your-tongue spicy like that stuff her Daddy eats.”
“No,” I say, my voice more clipped than I intend it to be. I exhale slowly, then say more calmly, “No, thank you.”
Blaze shrugs and plates his eggs, adding some red sauce from a large jar. After taking a bite, he says, “It’s different from NewVa spice. But good, too.” He holds out his fork with some spice-covered eggs. “You sure you don’t want any?”
I’ve never been a fan of anything on my eggs, and it sounds gross. “I’m positive.” I sigh, raking a hand through my hair as I sit down hard at the kitchen table. “Holden cornered me in the library,” I tell him. “Apparently Pandora pulled some shit at Holden’s place…?”
Blaze takes a long time chewing and swallowing before heresponds. “Yeah. But it’s fine. River and I talked to her. Anyway, Keegan definitely deserved it.” His jaw clenches. “He’s been smart and laying low, but Ezio must have convinced him it was safe to show his face again.”
I stare at him. What hasn’t he been telling me?
“Wait, what?” I ask. “Ezio? What does he have to do with anything?”
Blaze freezes up like a deer in headlights. “Eh, it’s nothing,” he says quickly. He finishes off his eggs and immediately puts the plate and fork into the dishwasher. “How’s studying going? We can work on the stats class shit if you’re done with macro economics or whatever hell you’re torturing yourself with right now.”
“It’s not nothing,” I snap at him. “What the fuck, Blaze? You and River are dealing with Pandora now, and Ezio is… What? He’s back? Don’t you think I need to know these things? The frat is fucking furious with you, and they’re talking about ‘doing something’ about it.”
Blaze lets out a long sigh. “They talk big, but we both know they won’t pull any shit. They’re all entitled, spoiled kids who piss themselves when they get scared.” He grins widely. “Literally, in Holden’s case.”
“We’re already in deep shit with your dad,” I point out, not sharing his amusement. “And now Ezio is around again? How do you think we’re not going to run into problems, Blaze? Don’t you care about any of this?”
